Blog List

Election coverage

October 21, 2009 - Jennifer Houtman

With the Nov. 3 general election right around the corner, The Marietta Times is providing comprehensive coverage of candidates and issues.

Regular readers of The Times in print and online already have seen several stories on specific races for Marietta City Council, Belpre City Council, Belpre School Board, and the Marietta City School bond issue to name just some of the stories we've featured in recent weeks. We have more coverage planned in our daily edition and preparations are under way for our Voters Guide which will publish in the newspaper on Saturday, Oct. 31. Look for candidates' answers to questions as well as articles explaining local and state issues. The guide will also provide election information such as polling places locations and times.

Much of this information already is available on our Web site's special election section. Click on the election bar for a complete ballot and the stories and videos on the issues and candidates you find there.

One of the new features you'll find online are videos of our interviews with candidates for Marietta City Council and school board. The Times has a long tradition of endorsing candidates for city offices. This year we wanted to give readers a glimpse into that endorsement process by taping our interviews with candidates and putting those videos online where readers can watch for themselves. We will make our endorsements in the days leading up to the election.

The videos offer another layer of coverage. It gives voters a chance to see and hear the questions we ask, as well as the candidates' responses, and then see how that discussion ties in to the actual endorsements themselves.

Those candidate interviews will remain online through election night and will be broadcast by Marietta College on WCMO-TV Channel 15. We want to thank Marilee Morrow and her students at the college for their help with this project.

We welcome your suggestions for making our election coverage better. Share your ideas by dropping me an email or calling me at 376-5401.